NKJV Study Bible (2nd Edition) is a good resource

Of the various translations if the Bible out there I tend to like 3 the most. The KJV, ESV, and NKJV are easily my favorite 3. The MEV might replace one of those but I’ve only just started reading through it so those are still my three. I was given the opportunity to review a NKJV Study Bible published by Thomas Nelson and was excited at the opportunity.

First thing, I’m not going to spend a lot of time going over the content of the study notes. In general they are good. Some things I don’t agree with. But after going through the Bible I suspect every Christian of every stripe will find something they don’t 100 % agree with (though not all the same things). This I’ve found is true of every study Bible. After all the notes are not inspired, they are the work of flawed men (and women). Therefore I don’t expect perfection. One thing we all need to learn is to eat the watermelon and spit out the seeds. So in general they are good, but not perfect.

The cover is a teal/blue design (the copy I received was the soft fake leather that is very popular right now). I thought it was ok but my wife thought it was very nice. Perhaps this color scheme is designed to appeal to women or maybe I just don’t like color. Not sure. You can judge for yourself by looking at the picture.

It has center column references which are traditional and very well-liked by many. Personally I prefer side column references as it is easy to see what verses have them. The color coding on notes is great though. If you’re a visual learner I think this will be a good layout/design for you. Even if you’re not it helps draw clear lines between the inspired text and the thoughts people have had on the text. This isn’t to say that all the notes have color coding but it there enough for it to register (at least for me).

It is on the big side for Bibles. Not as large as the ESV Study Bible (which is also great), but still big enough that it probably won’t be your everyday carry around with you Bible either (if you are the type that has one of those).

Over all it’s a solid study Bible and an improvement on the original version (which didn’t have the color). If you like the NKJV and are looking for a study Bible you could do much worse than this one (I’m looking at you Modern Life Study Bible). I did receive this Bible for free for the purpose of this review. The opinions are, however, my actual opinions.